Cedars-Sinai's Department of Surgery, led by Bruce Gewertz, MD, is particularly well-suited to succeed in the modern health care environment. Our institution has a uniformly positive reputation both regionally and nationally for superb clinical care and superior outcomes. This legacy reflects the quality and dedication of our attending physicians who have been serving this community with distinction for many years. More recently, we have added a larger nucleus of full-time academic surgeons and surgical scientists to augment our cutting-edge translational research.

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As a consequence of these investments, the last several years have seen substantial increases in nearly all indices of academic achievement including National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding (increasing from $500,000 to $ 4.4 million per year), the quality and selectively of the surgical residency program (more then 600 applicants annually for 4 positions) and the national visibility of our clinical programs especially minimally invasive surgery, thoracic surgery, spine surgery, trauma/critical care, joint replacement, inflammatory bowel disease and transplantation.

More specifically we have targeted the following five goals through 2015:

We will continue our high level of clinical productivity for Cedars-Sinai.

We will manage our resources prudently and maintain a solid budgetary posture consistent with institutional expectations.

Through targeted recruitments, faculty development and collaboration with the Cedars-Sinai basic science institutes, we will elevate our ranking for NIH funds awarded to surgery departments from the current ranking (top 25) to the top 15. Primary areas of focus will include urologic oncology, stem cell applications (orthopedics, ophthalmology and organ replacement) and molecular imaging.

We will expand our residency programs beyond general surgery to include new programs in urology and orthopedic surgery. The educational opportunities for our residents will be enriched by expanded training facilities (simulation laboratory), an enhanced academic environment, and the diverse and plentiful clinical exposure to our full-time and voluntary staff.

We plan to gain greater national recognition in a number of high visibility clinical programs in addition to the current areas of clinical strength enumerated above.. We are particularly focused on expanding programs in complex cardiac surgery and heart transplantation, endovascular treatments for aortic disease, esophageal disease and sports medicine.